Friday, March 26, 2010

26th March 2010

On wed, after classes had choir audition for the SOT support team. After which, went to the doc to get some med (cough and flu was surfacing since the night b4 i.e. tue night). That night had a fever. Was practically shivering the whole night even when i switched off the air con/fan. My whole body was aching.

Went to the doc again the nxt day (thurs) to get an mc. Was feeling too unwell to go for class and cg. The nurse (who's actually the doc's wife) on hearing my "sexy" voice adviced me to see the doc again. The doc gave me more med & 2 days mc. Doc said I need more rest. Feeling much better now. But still coughing. Each time I cough my chest would hurt. Not good. :(

Whenever I talk on the phone (most of them being my suppliers & staffs), they could hear from my voice that I'm not feeling well. Though haven't been feeling well, but still I had to get some work done. There's still a lot more that needs to be done. Now mum's sick too. She caught my flu bug. :( Praying that she'll recover soon and for God's divine healing and strength to be upon me.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

24th March 2010

Had a really tiring weekend. SOT classes in the mornings then rush off to help out with sis's and niall's wedding preparation. There was buddhist temple blessing on thurs morning but I didn't go coz was in class. Tea ceremony was on fri nite over dinner at Sentosa Golf Club with family, relatives & all the close friends of sis. The actual wedding day was on the sat. Woke up at 5.30am on that day for makeup & hairdo followed by the jie-mei thingy (though niall was ang mo. he was actually v. sporting throughout the jie-mie thingy & cleared each stages rather quickly. great on you niall!). After the jie-mei thingy, headed off church of the sacred heart, a catholic church, for the holy matrimony followed by lunch buffet and dinner banquet. Both in raffles hotel ballroom. Went home to freshen up a bit b4 heading down to raffles hotel again for the nite's makeup and hairdo. The wedding was one-of-a-kind + there was a live band making the entire ballroom more alive. FUN! Svc on sun. Woke up slightly late & missed pre-svc PM. As there was a road closure at ECP was late for service. Didn't drove that day coz one of the belts underneath my car broke and the car is not in the condition for driving. Dangerous. The steering couldn't turn. Airconditioning couldn't work.

1 of our staff who got transferred to work in my dad's office started work there since mon. So now we're down with 3 staffs. After svc on sun met mum at suntec to settle a staff problem. Our china staff threatened to quit after she got scolded. She claims that the computer in suntec often has got problems & cannot be switched on. This is not the 1st time. And coincidentally it always happens on much more busier days e.g. weekends esp sundays. When we say that a technician will come down to check the system, she'll say "don't need to come down already. it's working already". What rubbish? When asked why other staffs and myself nv encounter such problems when we're working there & why the other outlets using the same system nv once encounter such problems. She couldn't answer us. Anyways, we still got a technician to go down to check the computer system to find out what's the problem. He said that the computer is perfectly fine. Even he suspected she has got sthg up her sleeves. She must have did sthg to the computer so that we cannot see what she is doing in the shop. Since she threatened to quit, we took back her work permit & told her that if she really wanna quit then can go ahead, we can just cancel her permit & she can go back to china immediately. The most we just pack up & shift out of suntec earlier (it's only a few more weeks b4 the contract ends anyways). She got shocked that we actually said that & started defending herself and said she actually still wants to work. She thought we'll beg her to stay (assumption made here) coz she knows very well that if she were to leave then we'll be short of 1 staff. We're not so desperate & beg any staff to stay.

To cut the long story short, she got transferred to far east while our 1 & only guy staff who's in far east got transferred to suntec and was also asked to run about all 3 outlets so as to replace the staff whom we've transferred to work in my father's office. He was chosen b'coz firstly he's willing to work in all outlets & secondly he has the teachable attitude. We like that! He's actually one of our previous staff. Previously he had really really really bad attitude. He went to work in other places but couldn't last long. After "banging on the walls" of the working world out there, he came back & ask us to take him back in promising to change. This is the 3rd chance we've giving him (he walked out on the his own accord the past 2 times on impulse). Although we feel that he has really changed, we still have to see if he can cross his "3rd mth" of work (he has nv worked in any job for more than 3 mths). End of nxt week will be the end of his 3rd mth. Will he be able to break his record by staying more than 3 mths in a job? By the looks of it, I think he can. He knows that if he chooses to leave again, he most probably will not get the chance to come back ever again. Can see that he's really treasuring this chance that he has been given. The other staffs are unwilling to run abt outlets. Well...they dun wanna run abt outlets it's okay. We won't force them to. It's their choice. Only that those who are willing to run abt outlets will get to see and learn more things when they serve different kinda customers in different outlets. They may even get the chance to be promoted faster than the others who're unwilling to go extra mile. After all, those retail supervisors we see out there are in-charge of not just one but a few outlets.

Met one of our suppliers yesterday who showed us samples of new arrivals. Shoes, tees, shirts, bermudas. Business is so slow lately, yet there's still so many new stocks coming out. Went through a dilemma of whether to buy or not to buy. If we buy, older stocks get pile up again & we'll once again face the problem of how to clear all those old stocks (i feel that we already have enough stocks piled up). If we dun buy, pple will see the same old thing & end up not buying anything as we dunno anything new in the shop. We'll always be facing this problem in retail esp in fashion industry as fashion is really fast moving. Eventually we bought some & they're coming in ard May/June. In time for the June holidays.

Parents not really supportive of me studying in SOT. They're complaining saying that I dun care abt the biz, that I spend so much time in church and I shouldn't get any pay for the nxt 6 mths. I where got dun care abt the biz? If I dun care abt the biz, I won't rush back after classes lo. Dun they know how stressed I am when the sales is bad? :( To them religion cannot be a no. 1 in life & that 1 cannot believe in a religion 100%. They feel that I should spend more time in the biz then in church (which they think it's unnecessary). They thought that I'll just have to go for morning classes & that's it...no need to go for svc, cg and other church activities. But I already told them abt it b4 I signed up. They were okay with it at that time but now they're not happy abt it esp mum. Didn't go for tonite's LYL OPM tonite I'll be out for 2 nights - special meeting with Dr Paul Kim yesterday & CG tmr. :( Dun wanna upset them further. Got scolded by mum for going for last week's SOT OPM. She said I too "chen-mi" already & disallowed me to go for any more OPM. :( However, managed to get permission to go for just 1 more SOT OPM and that's it (heard there's 3 SOT OPM for this yr's batch. 1 was last wk. 2 more to go. But can only go for 1 more). My parents dun like us staying out late at night esp when we've work/studies the nxt morning (in this case it's SOT).

Had choir audition after class today (signed up to be part of SOT choir support team). For ministry I joined chorus board. Initially intended to join usher but felt more led to join chorus board and so I did. There's this flu virus going ard in this yr's batch of SOT. Have been coughing for the last few days. Having a sore sore throat since yesterday. Went to the doctor to get some medicine b4 it worsens. The doctor said that I just need more rest and more water. Other than the normal medicine for cough and flu, he also gave me a few days dosage of sleeping vitamins (he said it's not sleeping pills) to help me to relax & sleep better at night b'coz I haven't been sleeping well lately. God I pray for your divine strength and healing to be upon me.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

15th to 18th March 2010

A quick post. 14 fr LYL zone, 1 fr YA zone & 9 Indonesia make up SOT 2010 Team 25! Our team name is Ohana (which means family in hawaiian)

P&W these past few days have been really powerful! It was like 1.5hrs. Atmosphere really different from in service. Presence of God so strong in the entire auditorium. Love it Love it Love it! =)

During P&W on tuesday Pst called upon those who have been facing some kinda persecution when enrolling for SOT & for feeling anxious/worried abt their businesses & career. I responded. Feeling much better now...the peace of God has filled with my heart. God has NOT given as a spirit of fear but of power, love & a sound mind. AMEN!

My parents are still kinda naggy abt me going to SOT. Also there're certain things they say abt how/what I should be doing in the biz but i disagree with them coz of 1 word: integrity. I still stand firm on my ground that integrity is impt esp in biz.

Physically all of us are feeling tired. Waking up early, getting to JW on time etc etc is really a form of discipline for every1 of us. But it's all for our good...to build up our character. Had SOT overnight prayer meeting (OPM) last from 1.30am to 4am. So sudden lo. Only gotten to know abt it just now. They just make annoucement in class ysterday. Was shocked. Had a big dinner gathering with family/relatives/sis's in-laws and friends. Went on to conquer our 1st OPM. Was feeling stoned by 4am. After OPM, we all headed to get some sleep: sisters in the chinese church hall, brothers in the children church hall, foreigners went back to their hostel, & the ga-ran ones were up all night in the cafe. Slept for 2 hrs but didn't sleep well as it was rather noisy. Footsteps. Voices. Mobile phones ringing. Arghh....irritating!

Woke at 7am to freshen up then went to the audi with others in the team to book seats for class. We then headed to get some breakfast. I had a char sao bao. After class, rushed off to meet family and others at sacred heart church at tank road for sis's and niall's church wedding rehearsal. As part of the wedding entourage, will be walking down the aisle with the other bridemaids b4 sis walks in accompanied by dad. I've also got 2 parts in the "prayer of faithful". It's almost dinner time. Now only did I realised that I didn't even have my lunch. Though I'm feeling physically tired but can't seem to take a nap.

1 more day to sis's and niall's wedding. Another 2 more long & bz days to go. Guests/relatives are starting to arrive from overseas. Dun even have time to drop by the outlets. Busy busy busy! Got to go collect sis & mine gowns tmr + help collect the bridal bouquet etc from the florist for the actual day wedding that is on this sat.

Monday, March 15, 2010

14th March 2010

It's SOT tmr (i mean today). Hehe...too excited to sleep. Must force myself to sleep soon. My car is not back from the service centre yet. So that means no car again tmr. Will only be back in the morning. But by then SOT orientation would have already started. Grrrrrrr....

2 of my young cousins (maternal side) arrived this afternn. Picked them up at the airport & then went to Bugis Junction for lunch and walked ard. Haven't seen them for a couple of years only & they're all grown up. Man...I feel old now. LOL! They are both sleeping over at our place, in our room (my younger sis and I share a room). 1 of them just completed SPM (M'sia equivalent to SG O lvl) & intends to study poly here. Helped him to submit his application online this afternn (closing date is on 16/03). He wants to follow the footsteps of his father and do an electronics/computer engineering course. His parents are kind of worry that he can't get in as his english didn't managed to get a credit (only a pass). But his other results are quite good + he got a B for "english for technology & communication". Think it will be able to help him. His cousin in Indo (faternal side) who is the same age as him managed to enter TP to study engineering. I pray that he can get in.

Sis, Niall & the in-laws arrived in the evening. We had a great family dinner at Keppel Club. V. "re nao" today & the in-laws are v. "re qing". Heard that the plane they were had some problems with the door. The door was not closed properly or sthg went wrong with the door application & the alarm on board was ringing. 1/2 way thru' the flight the plane had to make an emergency landing in Poland and all on board had to evacuate the plane. Sounds scary to me. Thank God they arrived safely.

Looks like there won't be a family dinner tmr. That means I can go to to youth meeting in peace. LOL! Ok...time to zzzz. Else tmr (today i mean) cannot wake up.

Friday, March 12, 2010

11th/12th March 2010

Ever since younger sis came back home, been out the last few days with them. Whenever she's back, we'll both be 'fighting' to use the car. But for days (since last mon) the car has been in jaguar service centre for 'makeover'. It's been almost 2 wks. They say it will only ready on Sat night. Looks like its going to be public transport again. When the car is back, I think we'll be back to 'fighting' for the car. Ultimately it'll be 1st come 1st serve.

Elder sis and Niall will be back in sg on sun (14/03) to prepare for the wedding. Other relatives will also be in sg on sun. The rest arriving b4 the wedding on the 18/03 or 19/03 (ard there). The wedding is on next sat (20/03). Parents have arranged a family dinner with relatives & future-in-laws on mon night but I told them I won't be going coz have got youth meeting at Expo with Pst Kong (true what!). Thurs afternn have got church wedding rehearsal. The nxt few days going to be busy.

SOT starting on monday. That's 2 more days. Excited! Not used to getting up so early every day. Hopefully won't oversleep for at least the nxt 6 mths. =P But I think by the end of SOT, my whole body-clock will be adjusted. I'm now up-to-date with all accounts. Phew! FINALLY! All done. Must really keep it up-to-date from now on. Trying to catch up on them is hard work.

Sales nowadays are so bad. Aiyoyoyoyo....why like that? I really can't take it. Why is it so tough in retail nowadays. Haiz...like that really sianz man. I'm really touched by the many encouragements I've gotten from friends ard me: "Your business will prosper/revive". All ur encouragements really means a lot to me. Thanks so much for listening, encouraging and praying for me. Cannot and will not let myself be bonded by the circumstances. That's what the devil wants to do but triumph over it. Will continue to confess that my business will prosper.

Transferring a staff to my dad's office to do admin job as we feel that the pay and office working hrs will much better for her so that she get to spend more time with her son. She took up the job offer almost immediately. Gotta do a lil reshuffling for the schedule of the remaining staffs. But they're rather reluctant to work in another outlet or work with a person they dun like. This is already the best solution out so as not to retrench any staff. Explained it to them but there was quite a hoo-ha abt this this afternn. At last they understand & said they will try their best to work together. We emphasize a lot on teamwork and they know it.

From 29th mar to 14th apr when the staff allocated in suntec is away (off or in another outlet), we'll either close the shop there for that day (that is few days a week) or i'll go down there after SOT classes to tend the shop for 1/2 a day. I'm okay with it. I may even be able to study there since it's so quiet there. There's no problem for iluma (it's seems like every1 wants to work in iluma coz those who work there got OT pay for having to work an hr extra). The problem now is far east. If they wanna work, they've to at least try their best to get along & work in team. Have spoken to them abt it. They say they'll try their best. In May, we'll also be sending the very 1st local staff out for the retail course.

Have got more more new stocks coming in. But not much. Just a little as it's the quiet period. Among the stocks are new stocks from our franchisor, stocks from our latest supplier of organic cotton tees & lastly new designs of shoes. Our 3-yr franchising contract is coming to an end soon. We're ordering lesser & lesser stocks from them. Likewise they're slowly dropping us out. Dunno what is their plan when the 3 yr contract comes to the end but we're not intending to continue the franchise. Maybe distributorship will be better. We cannot rely on them else we cannot survive. All the retail prices of their products are set by them. Margin too low liao. Other than this franchise, we've other suppliers. 1 of them is doing our own brand/design for us. Got to really start looking for new suppliers & also come out with new designs. Praying for favour of God and men.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

8th March 2010

6 days to SOT! So fast! So exciting! Actually I'm having mixed feelings now. Happy, excited, fearful and worried. Happy & excited to FINALLY be able to go to SOT. I've been "next yr"-ing for the past...3yrs+ ever since I came back from Australia in July 2006. From now on no more "next yr"-ing. NOW is the time. Fearful & worried abt how I'm going to cope with studies in SOT & managing the business. Going to be quite siong. But I'm sure everything's going to be alright. God will be my guidance and this is DEFINITELY the start of a great breakthrough.

Finally we know the location of our new premise. Our Promised Land - Suntec Convention Centre! I still can't really believe that we now have Suntec Convention Centre as our worship location. Let alone us being the co-owner of that place. It's after all a convention centre le. I always thought the location is somewhere in Marina Barrage. But the fact is God HAS given us Suntec! I think the video is fanastic! So detailed! So WOW! Thank God for SUN! If not for her, our new premise wouldn't be in Suntec but Jurong East. Jurong WEST to Jurong EAST. LOL! Though Jurong East is v. near my place but still not central enough. Can't be selfish. What abt the other CHC members staying in other parts of Singapore + the new souls we'll be impacting for God. After all, we're into building lives NOT building buildings.

After svc on sunday. Fellowshipped at Zhiyan's place over potluck & board games. We were so engrossed with "I'm the boss" that we didn't realised the time. Since I didn't drive (no car), took MRT back. Got home only at 6++pm and immediately went out with parents and sis to Serangoon to have dinner & check out City Square Mall (our shop renovation contractor keep telling us that we can consider taking a unit there. so we went to check it out). But nah...I don't think so. It's rather quiet there.

Halfway through the board games at Zhiyan's, mum called me. It was a short conversation & went something like this...
"hello"
"your church shifting to Suntec?"
"yea"
"come out so big in the newpapers le. going to have so many youths. you still want to shift out?"
"but we're only shifting in next mar"
"next mar ah...okay lo...think abt it 1st".
Funny sia. She's actually quite reluctant to shift out of suntec b'coz of the soon-to-be-open Promenade MRT & RI & now our church will be shift there. If suntec can rent us a unit at/below the maximum rental amt we can offer then we'll consider staying. But I doubt suntec will give us that kinda rate we're looking for.

These few days been busy with sis's wedding preparation. As 1 of the 4 bridemaids for that day, we've got 3 gowns each (bridemaid dress, cheongsum & evening gown). The other 3 bridemaids are my younger sis, Niall's sis & Niall's sis-in-law. All "ka-ki-lan". Have been out the whole day yesterday & today. Didn't managed to get any work done. Haiz. Got an appt to get my hair cut tmr morning in the hair salon I usually go in Far East (who's acutally 1 of my neighbours there).

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Updated updates

Looking forward to a quite a number of things this mth: A&B & the announcement of the location of our iconic church building, SOT, sis & Niall's wedding. Really excited! Younger sis is back today. Elder sis & Niall will be back on the 14th (6 days b4 the wedding). The nxt few days going to be busy preparing the wedding. I'm the tea ceremony mc & troubleshooter operations manager (haha...sis gave me that title).

My aim is to be fruitful in all I do in the kingdom of God be it in church, in family, or in the marketplace. I believe this is the start of a great breakthrough. YEAH!!!

We got a new supplier. It's a small world sia. This new supplier also knows the magazine rep whom I've been in contact with. Wks b4 CNY,the magazine rep mentioned this supplier to me at one of meetings & also mentioned me to this new supplier when they met up. But as CNY was coming up soon, we didn't had time to think abt such matter. It happened that the supplier chanced abt both our iluma outlet & far east outlet that he decided to contact me in regards to the possibilities in working together. Only when we met up on thursday did we realised that we had a common 3rd party & were actually recommendations thru' the magazine rep.

China staff contract supposedly ending mid this mth but her contract renewal has been approved. She'll be staying for only 1 more yr (as her passport is expiring nxt yr). But we kinda regretted extending her contract. Her attitude la! She v. yaya v. demanding sia. Think she's everything ah? W/o her we can't go on? See how she perform the next few days. But she's definitely not going to be the key person. Going to send our local staffs out for part-time SIRS Certificate in Retail Operations course 1 by 1. Going to get more information 1st.

Suntec contract ending mid nxt mth. Suntec offered us another unit near Eng Wah Cinema/Arcade. We were actually considering taking up that unit as we feel Eng Wah Cinema/Arcade side will be a much better than our current location. Also, as RI & Promenade MRT station (near Carrefour) will be opening quite soon we were quite relunctant to shift out. But those whom we talked to (incl. our renovation contractor) said things like "forget it...don't waste time in suntec. 3yrs is more than enough...just get out of suntec...can always find somewhere better".

So final final final decision! Since we've been in suntec for 3yrs w/o seeing any results (= no fruits) , it's time for us move on. No looking back. Concentrate more on far east & iluma. So looks like when suntec outlet has closed, we'll have too many staffs. 4 staffs for 2 outlets. 3 will be more than enough. Was talking to one of my staffs the other day & he/she also agree that 1 staff in each outlet is already enough. Does that mean we really need to cut down on staffs? If so, some1 will lose his/her job. Thinking of the best solution out.

Sales has not been good of late esp far east & suntec. Wonder what's going on. Haiz. But bugis not bad leh. We might extend the contract there if sale in bugis continues this way even better if it improves. I wouldn't need to be in the shop from now onwards. Schedule from now till mid-apr have been arranged with staffs. But still have to go down once in a while to collect back the cash sales etc. When I've to go down all 3 outlets to do stuffs, it can take up so much time. Esp if I were to deliver goods. 1/2 the day will be gone just like today Gotta work on my remaining accounts and catch up up-to-date. Left feb invoices of 1 company & both jan & feb invoices of another company not done. Must jia you le. There's more stock work to do too. And preparation of sis and Niall's wedding.